thoughts that come to mind, and digitally archived for reference when i'm old.
something to share with my kids and grandkids.
at present, it serves as a reminder to self.
Friday, April 22, 2005
mesb fire squad members with fellow training instructors from balai bomba pasir gudang
with fellow fire squad members.
oil & gas fire drill.
wrestle with real water pressure (without any fire to put out though)
16 ~ 18 april 2005. and so i was among 15 of us sent by mesb for company fire squad training in balai bomba pasir gudang.
it was a series of lectures (theories) and practical training (tiresome but awesome). we gained some skills for rescuing people from building on fire - basically how to carry people sans equipment - bare handed, alone and with 2 & 3 other assisting.
there was a series of (four total) hose drill. basically, it is a set of instruction of how to coordinate and distribute work (well, not quite) between team members of four. in brief, all the drills require member no. 3 to frequently run along the hose line - need quite high stamina and enthusiasm. oh, and if anybody do ask you - the rubber fire hose has a coupling at each end, male and female. and the standard length is 100 ft.
the basic hose drill (drill no. 1) spans 300 ft. of hose with a jet nozzle at the end. we were equipped with hard hats (firemen hats - cool) and fire jacket (well, doing it under the hot sun makes you appreciate your everyday work - you don't have to be as hot and sweaty). the best part came on the last day. we get to handle the fire hose blasting the water jet under 6bar pressure. it really requires teamwork and coordination.
and there was this oil & gas fire fighting drill - requires twin hose spray as water curtain, protecting the firemen.
well, what i do get out of this, if any, is that i have better knowledge regarding fire safety. also, i have enormous respect to our fellow firemen regarding the public service they are constantly putting their lives into.
from concise oxford dictionary 9th ed.: skilln. expertness, practised ability, facility in an action; dexterity or tact.
for me, it is the thing that gives people the itch. babies acquiring walking skills would walk around non-stop. small kids practising writing their names. and signatures. driving school graduates wanting to drive their cars at every given opportunity. golfers practising their shots. perfecting playing musical instruments. touch typing. and the whole long list of other skills imaginable.
improving one's skills is my answer to the question of why people love to do things. before one having the necessary skill to do something, he needs to master the basic skill needed to get on the platform. when the basic skill is grasped, this is where the itch begins. comes the next level, which is to making it second nature. finally, there's the endless level of mastering and fine-tuning the skill.
to err is human. this is the greatest challenge (and fun) part of acquiring a skill. to be 100% perfect with the skill is the goal. for a typist, his goal would be error free, ultra-fast typing. for a golfer, his would be effortless hole-in-ones. every time. for a footballer, his would be controlling the ball, scoring beautiful goals. for an F1 driver, first place at every leg of the race. every season. and so on...
can you think of a skill that you are now improving? if you can't answer that, try this - what makes you itch?
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
quite new Avanza with seats still in wraps. oh, and there were people sitting on the seats. wonder how long will the wraps be there...
ever noticed that (in malaysia, at least) many things are kept in their original plastic wraps (or protective plastic film), and kept that way for quite a long time. even until the wrappers are frayed and makes the thing itself looks messy. you may see examples on things such as: chair legs, car seats, glass display panel on cd/vcd/dvd players, washbasin drain (this one usually with blue protective film), etc.
come on, the reason those covers are there is to protect the surface during transport from the factory (and the shop) to you so that you'd get unscratched stain-free & nice looking things that you bought.
if you intend to keep it that way, no problem. after a certain period of time though, the protective covers will get dirty, frayed, etc. & turns unsightly. don't you think it's time to remove them?
just so that the THINGS do look nice.
the double rainbow. nope, no lens effect here. just two beautiful rainbows. nice.
it's been quite a long while since i've seen the beautiful rainbow. and just my luck, this time it's a double rainbow. i had never known that there is such thing as a double rainbow, until i heard about it while in Mina during the heavy rain of Zulhijjah. friends said there's a newsbreak in Malaysia citing the sighting of double rainbow and Mina flooded. i never got the chance then to see the rainbows. well, last sunday i witnessed it (them). with Marsya. i was driving down PLUS highway (after a heavy rain) towards Johor and i scanned the horizon. to my left, there they are - beautiful rainbows. subhanallah.
Monday, April 04, 2005
putik manggis. this is the bud stage of a mangosteen. teka berapa ulas dalam buah manggis ni nanti (insyaAllah)?
weekend lepas drove up to senawang balik my parents house. rasa rindu.and, balik kampung juasseh (kuala pilah). sejak balik dari hajj, this is the first time balik sana. plus, ada kenduri kat rumah sedara nearby rumah kampung. the main thing was for marsya to meet up with her friend (dua pupu) syafiqah. selalu sangat she imagined talking to her on the telephone. quietly i arranged for the weekend untuk balik kampung. naza was made busy jadi timekeeper johor state netball meet (mssj) from friday til sunday in jb, so tak ikut sekali. how happy marsya was, main² dengan syafiqah sampai habis basah kepala dia berpeluh² (plus bahang tengahari kat kampung). on the way back around 3pm, about five minutes in the car dia dah tidur dah, sampai la lagi 60km to home. about 2 hours sleep. penat sangat la tu. manggis memang menjadi tahun ni. at least, putik manggis banyak betul. perhaps, ganti buah tak menjadi tahun lepas.i've never seen manggis berputik sebanyak tu. alhamdulillah, hopefully nanti menjadi boleh buat makan ramai² anak cucu atuk. i love mangosteen. you need some sort of a skill untuk kupas buah manggis. unlike rambutan, manggis still ada value sekarang² ni. you could tell (subhanallah) ada berapa ulas buah manggis dalam tu, by looking at the 'tampuk'. i think, the most i had was 8 ulas dalam sebiji manggis. jarang jumpa 9. when enjoying mangosteen, here's a caution: keep your hands away from your shirt. getah manggis tak boleh hilang.
keruing tree (dipterocarpus spp.). looked up and saw this while trekking down the trail in endau-rompin national park.